tag: Puzzles - Page 1

7/12/2017 – "Do you find yourself spending too much time on social media?" asks the columnist in the July issue of CHESS Magazine. "Me too." John describes how he keeps compulsively checking his Facebook and Twitter accounts. It uses up a lot of time, but there are plus points: you find a lot of chess puzzles, many of them quite irresistible. He shows us two examples which you can try to solve on our interactive javascript chess board. Have fun.

5/11/2017 – When the 12-year-old Nihal Sarin visited ChessBase in Hamburg in April it was not just his incredible chess skills and understanding that impressed us all. The lad is blessed with a fair deal of humour, and sprouts entertaining chess puzzles at every turn. Like the series of problems that took advantage of an imprecise definition of the castling rules. Or one, which we passed on to our readers: "A game ends on move four with a b-pawn giving mate." We got a lot of feedback, and the winner has been drawn: the prize, a Fritz 15 program signed by three World Champions, goes to...

5/6/2017 – We have published a number of problems in the past months, initially without the solutions. After some days or weeks we added the solutions on the original page, but of course many readers might have missed this. And some may have missed the problems themselves. So today we bring you a special report with the problems of Pal Benko and Miguel Illescas, with their solutions. The prize winner of the Nihal Sarin puzzle will follow shortly.

11/6/2016 – "I would like to pose you with a rook endgame, which was one of the best calculations I have done in my chess career till date," writes Avathanshu Bhat. He was faced with a rook and three pawns vs rook and three pawns ending and had to calculate quite deeply to win it. You are asked to do the same on our interactive PGN player. After you have excercised your chess skills you can listen to the video analysis of the player himself.

5/22/2016 – Last Monday we explained the endgame bishop and edge pawn vs a lone king, and how volatile it becomes when the bishop does not control the promotion square of its pawn. Today we will tell you how some famous people fared with the study we gave you to solve. We also explain didactically how to solve such endings and give you two more studies to hone your skills in a vital area of chess.

5/16/2016 – As you most certainly know, a bishop and a pawn will generally win against a lone king. However there is one important exception: when the pawn is on the edge of the board and the bishop does not control the promotion square. This has been known for over 500 years, but humans and especially early computers are wont to stumble in the execution. Stories, instructions and a puzzle to solve.

4/30/2016 – Over Christmas we had an interesting problem: say you have found some moves somewhere, in coordinate notation without piece names – is it possible to reconstruct the original supposedly meaningful position to which they apply? Later the author, who has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, presented a second puzzle, and the winner gets a valuable prize.

2/24/2016 – Over Christmas we showed you an interesting problem: say you have found some moves somewhere, in coordinate notation without piece names – is it possible to reconstruct the original supposedly meaningful position to which they apply? The author, who has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, tried to do it, but with modest success. A reader presented a more plausible solution and won a valuable prize

2/5/2016 – Averbakh called them "threats of the 1st degree" – moves which directly and bluntly threaten to bring about a concrete mate or the win of material. 2nd degree threats are moves which are intended to enable threats of the 1st degree. And so it continues, recursively. In his wonderfully entertaining book Joys of Chess Prof. Christian Hesse goes all the way to threats of the 5th degree.

1/8/2016 – QM3: A game ends with the move 6...Nf1 mate – find moves that achieve this. That was our New Year's Puzzle. Solutions were sent in from around the globe – hundreds in all. Many letters were quite interesting, so we bring you a substantial selection. One of them has won the historic prize. Finally the coin problem by John Nunn: the solution is a five-second eight-word sentence that any ten-year-old can understand.

1/2/2016 – First of all a very Happy New Year to all our faithful readers, and best wishes for happiness and success in the year 2016. To celebrate and to close our Christmas puzzle week we bring you a final problem, one that is easy to formulate but is seriously difficult to solve. This is your chance to compete with some of the world's strongest players and problem experts. And to win a prize with historical significance.

12/31/2015 – In 1999, in the very first installment, we gave you a proof game problem as a Christmas puzzle, one that has occupied generations of chess players. Such problems require a great deal of lateral thinking, and are not readily accessible to computer analysis. This month we nostalgically reconnected with an old friend (from the previous millennium) who specializes in such problems. Have fun with Stuart Rachels' quick mates.

12/30/2015 – This year was the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Musing over the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, three years before, Pal Benko found a well-known chess problem that reflects the retreat of the French forces and the attacks by Cossack Hussards. It was composed by Alexander Petrov in 1824, but is somewhat flawed. Our problemist friend could not resist improving on it.

12/29/2015 – Here's an interesting problem: say you have found some moves somewhere, in coordinate notation without piece names – e.g. 1.h7g5 d8g5 2.b5d5 d1c2 etc. Can one reconstruct the original supposedly meaningful position to which they apply? Azlan Iqbal, who has a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence, retraces his thought processes when he tried, in this unique exercise in forensic chess. Help him and you can win a special prize.

12/28/2015 – In our previous puzzle article we showed you a complex endgame which Garry Kasparov
had shown a young chess prodigy. The former World Champion also explained
a number of important endgame concepts to the lad, who went on to annotate
the game for us. If you go through his notes carefully you will learn quite
a bit about chess endings and tempos. Don't miss it – it will add
some Elo points to your rating!

12/27/2015 – In the previous installment we showed you a study that Garry Kasparov gave to a ten-year-old prodigy to solve – in his mind. Today we bring you the solution and tell you how 2600+ GMs fared with the same task. And then there is a second study which Garry gave the lad to solve, one that will help you understand some important principles and improve your calculation skills.

12/26/2015 – Yesterday, on Christmas day, we showed you a talent test we have been conducting for years; decades almost; with young chess prodigies. The initial position had six pieces on the board and was fairly easy to solve. But shifting the white king to a different square made it really hard. Today we bring you the solution and tell you how our prodigies fared with it. And give you a new talent test, provided by Garry Kasparov.

12/25/2015 – Another year passes, with more chess than ever before. As always we end the year with our traditional Christmas puzzles – this year for the sixteenth time. We start the week with a simple talent test we have been using for decades and recently revived with young players. Some may know it already, but those who don't will see if they can match the brightest young talent we have today.

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (Norway Chess, FIDE GP Moscow, WCh Teams) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 11 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.

The attention will be paid to the castled king and in particular on ways of exploiting the weakened kingside. Several well-known themes, pawnformations and other attacking weapons are covered in 8 chapters.

Like a fine wine, the Four Knights only improves with age, establishing itself as an extremely effective way of meeting 1...e5. On the outside this opening seems deceptively quiet, yet apparently natural moves can often lead to some devastating attacks.

It was back in the 1920s that the Russian master Benjamin Blumenfeld invented his famous gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5!?, and to the present day the opening retains great popularity. Black plays for the initiative and the win from the word go.

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (Shamkir, Baden-Baden, US Champs) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 12 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.